By Bill W
May 9, 2016 – The Matt Wood Racing #17w team and Bryan Clauson had another solid outing amongst a very strong World of Outlaws field last Friday and Saturday night at Eldora Speedway near Rossburg, Ohio. The Noblesville, Indiana driver picked up a win Friday night with the USAC National Sprint Car Series as well, as he did double duty on the high banks. The team will race another pair of shows with the WoO in Indiana (Plymouth and Haubstadt) this week before Bryan concentrates on his third Indy 500 later this month.
On Friday night, Bryan timed in seventh quick in his group with the WoO. “It wasn’t a terrible lap, but we felt we left a little bit on the table,” he says. “We tried some things that didn’t work that well, but it wasn’t a bad spot to slide in there with.”
He would finish fourth in his heat. “We got a decent start,” says Bryan. “We were able to run right there with Joey (Saldana) and Donny (Schatz), so it was a solid fourth place effort there.”
Bryan would line up inside row seven for the feature. “Our MO at Eldora has been when we start in the back, it’s been hard to move forward,” he says. “We fell back a couple spots on the start and worked our way back to 11th by the end. I felt if we could have caught a yellow somewhere in the halfway point, we could have been pretty good. The race went non-stop, so it got a little spread out. Still, we were able to get a couple of spots and we were racing with some really good cars.”
The track was right for the feature. “The track was a lot of fun to race on,” says Bryan. “It was slick, and the cushion was up by the wall. You could run a little lower too. You could get in traffic, maneuver and make some moves.”
Bryan would qualify ninth in his group for Saturday’s WoO finale. “It wasn’t what we were looking for, but it was so tight in that pack of cars,” he says. “If we had picked up four-hundredths of a second, we could have been fourth quick. It wasn’t the end of the world.”
He would start fifth in his heat race. “We actually got a pretty good start,” says Bryan. “We got up to the fence. Obviously, on the first lap, you have a lot of traffic up there and Greg Wilson was able to stick the bottom and get to fifth. We ran right on him the whole race; we just couldn’t get by him. We got through the B o.k. though.”
The charge was on in the finale, as Bryan started 22nd and moved up ten spots to finish twelfth. “Once again, we were really good the second half of the race,” he says. “It took a little while to get going. We were kind of stuck back there in the quagmire of cars. It’s really easy to gain a few and lose a few. We were able to make the right moves the second half of the race, and we ended up twelfth.”
The Matt Wood Racing #17w team will compete with the World of Outlaws in Indiana this week at Plymouth Speedway Friday and Tri-State Speedway near Haubstadt Saturday.
Matt Wood Racing would like to thank: Elk Grove Ford, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Jonathan Byrd’s Hospitality and Restaurant Group, America’s Best Value Inn, Quick Lane and Impact Signs, Awnings & Wraps!